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Monday, July 28, 2014

Most of you are aware of my present addiction. It is difficult to be afflicted by this, which is similar to a severe disease. Some people even say it is very contagious, so we normally warn friends and colleagues who also intend to try this product. This is my hoya addiction!

The plants and garden are at home in my province, and i can't just normally drop by every afternoon after office hours. It takes at least 4-5 hours to go home, so the most normal routine for me is going home every other week. However, just recently i made it a point, no matter how tired I am during the weekdays, to go home every weeked. And that is to keep track of my hoyas blooming for the first time. Seeing them change morphology from opening till a few days before they drop is also very interesting.

This is Hoya pubicalyx that i watched opening from the first flower till all the flowers are open. It is a consolation to be doing just that, watch and shoot!

They normally open in the late afternoon, and starts emitting scents on the process. That is to attract insects for pollination, and the scent is even magnified at night luring the nocturnal insects like moths.

The flower buds take a longer time, from a few weeks to months from emergence to blooming. But even just the buds are consolation enough and very nice to photographs. This species is known to produce big almost round umbels, that really catch the fancy of both plain gardeners and addicts alike.

Look at that small insect nymph, it somehow take shelter on the safety of its pedicels (flower stalk). I just don't know if it is an enemy or just resting there. If it is a sucking insect, most probably it is an enemy.

Two plants adjacent to each other and flowering at the same time or simultaneously is a sight to behold. And the scent near them is a bit overpowering to the senses. The beauty of this species is the long number of days before they fell. For 7-8 days they are there expressing their beauty and lure passers-by!

What about you, aren't you a hoya addict yet? I warned you! It is very contagious.

Monday, July 7, 2014

Our rain, despite being a month late, is at least here now. Our afternoons are now often raining or at least drizzling. The temperatures decreased to more comfortable levels, and the sun's rays are not as hot as during the dry season. And the most important of all, the plants are so blessed. They are showing their responses favorably with lots of gratitude. We only see the obvious, but we forget that the most important thing for our lives are produced by the plants, oxygen. The plants are growing well again and we can breath more newly produced oxygen. How lovely our environment is, again!

Hippeastrum puniceum produced some early bloomers in March. But most of the bulbs produced more flowers after the first heavy rains in June. The blooms are not as intensive as when they simultaneously bloom, but the hedges are still giving delights.

Some mounds also bloom simultaneously, and they have been planted side by side with the blood lily.

Tuesday, July 1, 2014

My Hoya pubicalyx has been blooming since May, but it always do after i left for the big city where i stayed most days. Then finally, last weekend it chose to let me see its splendor. I am so thankful and savored all the pleasure it can give me. One flowering plant has six umbels, while the 2nd plant has 8. That is quite prolific already for a first bloomer and only at its 2nd year of growing. It really is a delightful experience, tending them, looking at them and shooting their pictures.

It looks so elegant individually, do you agree?

Even the umbel is half-full with flowers, an umbel almost 4 inches in diameter.

The flowers kept intact for 7-8 days, at dehiscense the corona are still very stiff.

About Me

I am passionate with Oxygen Generators: plants, trees, shrubs, grasses, ornamentals, flowers, lower plants and microorganisms that produce oxygen, the most important element to maintain life. This led me to be a Horticulturist-Plant Physiologist.
Kalantikan is a long ridge in our place, where we see the expanse of vegetation to the mountains while overlooking the islands and the bay. And you already know me at my other site, Andrea in this Lifetime. Email: kalantikan@gmail.com